Got the heads on last night. That part was pretty darned easy, in terms of skill required. It was tough, in terms of strength required. You have to torque all ten bolts on each head to 22ft lbs, then turn them in sequence 90 degrees more, and then in sequence again another 90 degrees (with the exception of bolts 9 & 10, which go 50 more on the final round). Fortunately, I have a breaker bar with a nice cheater pipe, and I'm a decent sized guy, so it wasn't unbearable. Next was the pushrods and rockers, which were straight forward. All in all, it was a three hour job or so.

Next up: new LG header install and installation of the crank pulley and timing cover.

I hope to have the car up and running by Sunday. I'll have a video of her if she doesn't blow up...

 

here it is,

 

Are you flipping me off in that picture?

 

you caught it!, i took that pic. just to help other guys a while back. are you gonna break in that cam at all? i know is a hyd. just curious! good luck either way.

 

I'm not sure on the break in. LS1howto.com suggests letting it idle until it reaches full operating temperature, then taking it for a nice drive without going above 4k rpm. Then it says you should let it sit overnight, and then you are good to go to redline. I don't know if that's optimal or not... Time for some research.

 

You're not good to go to redline until you have a WBO2 and some tuning software near by. Cam'd cars are usually pretty lean at WOT, even after the PCM has had some time to learn. If you can keep it running, cruise it around at light throttle (less than 35%) a couple times allowing it to cool off completely in between runs. That'll put a few heat cycles through the new parts before the tune. Just my $0.02...

 

that what i did for the first few 100 mi. after about 8kmi i decided to go to a shorter pr cause i had a unusual tick that developed when the engine was cold, switching to 7.350 from the stock 7.4 did the trick. my valvetrain was nice and quiet after that. today valve stem wear looks perfect.

 

Well, unfortunately, I have plenty of time to do the break in... My tuner's first opening isn't until 4/23. I was under the impression that I could drive it without a tune for a while, but he said to granny it, and not get on it at all. I figure I'd better not drive it; I'll be too tempted to unleash all that power!

 

that SUX man! i had to baby mine for a week before i got it tuned and it was sooooo hard to do. every time i thought about it, i just tried to remember the $$$ i had into it so i wouldnt wanna break anything lol

 

Well, after an interesting turn, I finally got everything running! I apologize for not posting here (I did post on the corvette forum, asking for advice on my troubles). After getting everything back together last Tuesday and firing it up, I only had 38psi of oil pressure at startup, and it came down to about 20 as it warmed to 115 degrees. I shut it down, figuring I had screwed up my O-ring. After tearing back into it (removing the damned steering rack and all the other goodies), I found that I had tortured my O-ring, and I replaced it that evening.



I got everything back together, and changed the oil Sunday, and fired her up, and the oil pressure shot up to the upper 50's, settling at the mid 30's at a hot idle (210 degrees). I got the anticipated O2 sensor error codes (added LG Longtube headers that don't use the front O2 sensors), and a mis-fire code, but nothing else. The car idles very well for a 224/224 with no tune. At first, it wanted to die on me after backing out of the drive and putting in the clutch, but it started finding the idle after 15 or 20 miles. This morning, it hits it's 600rpm idle just fine after pushing in the clutch. I think I still have some exhaust leaks to work out, but other than that, it seems to work fine.

I wish I could say that it feels way faster, but I have just been afraid to give it much throttle. At 1/8 throttle, it feels just like it did before; there's definitely not been a loss of low-low-end power or anything. The exhaust sounds great through my Z06 titanium catback with cats. The video clip below makes it sound a lot louder than it actually is; listen for the bird chirping in the background, and you can tell that it's not that loud... The valve-train noise is almost like stock. Other than the exhaust leak (I think it's where the headers hit the cats), it sounds great. Just what I wanted; half-way stockish loudness at idle, and a nice roar under load.

I have an appointment on 4/23 for a tune, and I'll be sure to get the dyno graph posted with my baseline afterwards. I was at 317 with a Vararam before. I'm hoping to hit 415...

 

holy smokes, you really tore it up. that sux to have to go through ripping all that apart again. i feel for ya. congrats getting her back up and running

 

Got her on the dyno for a tune today. Hit 410 at the wheel, with 390 torque. Here's a link to my graph and feelings on the setup. https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...05#post6925805